Office Action Predictor
Application No. 18/271,127

Switching Delay Control in a Dual-Active Protocol Stack Handover

Non-Final OA §103
Filed
Jul 06, 2023
Examiner
ACOLATSE, KODZOVI
Art Unit
2478
Tech Center
2400 — Computer Networks
Assignee
Telefonaktiebolaget Lm Ericsson (PUBL)
OA Round
1 (Non-Final)
83%
Grant Probability
Favorable
1-2
OA Rounds
2y 8m
To Grant
94%
With Interview

Examiner Intelligence

83%
Career Allow Rate
759 granted / 911 resolved
Without
With
+11.2%
Interview Lift
avg trend
2y 8m
Avg Prosecution
64 pending
975
Total Applications
career history

Statute-Specific Performance

§101
5.0%
-35.0% vs TC avg
§103
52.6%
+12.6% vs TC avg
§102
25.0%
-15.0% vs TC avg
§112
8.5%
-31.5% vs TC avg
Black line = Tech Center average estimate • Based on career data

Office Action

§103
DETAILED ACTION Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA . This is responsive to Application 18/271,127 filed 07/06/2023 in which claims 34-54 are presented for examination. Allowable Subject Matter Claims 36-40 and 47-53 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims. Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103 The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action: A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made. Claims 34, 35, 41-46 and 54 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over You et al (US 2023/0108413 A1) in view of Lin (US 2023/0262561 A1). Regarding claim 34, You teaches a method, performed by a user equipment (UE) operating in a wireless network, the method comprising: determining whether a receive-to-transmit or transmit-to-receive switching limitation of the UE for time-division duplexing (TDD) can be met during a dual-active protocol stack handover for the UE from a source cell to a target cell (You: [0238]-[0242], RF chain switching for DL and UL may be complex during DAPS handover, TDM/TDD). You does not explicitly disclose autonomously taking one or more mitigation actions in response to said determining. Lin teaches autonomously taking one or more mitigation actions in response to said determining (Lin: [0106]-[0109], introduction of interruption of downlink receiving to address the issue of uplink Tx switching during handover). It would have been obvious to a person having an ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify the system of You by autonomously taking one or more mitigation actions in response to said determining as disclosed by Lin to provide a system for dual active protocol stack handover (Lin: Abstract). Regarding claim 44, You in view of Lin teaches a user equipment (UE) (You: Fig. 14) for operation in a wireless network, the UE comprising: radio circuitry configured to communicate with the wireless network; and processing circuitry operatively connected to the radio circuitry and configured to cause the UE to carry out a method according to claim 34 (See rejection of claim 34). Regarding claim 45, You teaches a method, performed by a network node operating in a wireless network, the method comprising: determining whether there is a constraint on downlink-to-uplink switching or uplink-to- downlink switching by a user equipment (UE) during a dual-active protocol stack handover of the UE from a source cell to a target cell (You: [0238]-[0242], RF chain switching for DL and UL may be complex during DAPS handover, TDM/TDD). You does not explicitly disclose taking action based on said determination, said action comprising at least one of: adjusting a scheduling of a downlink transmission to the UE; adjusting a scheduling of an uplink transmission from the UE; adjusting a timing advance for the UE to the source cell and/or the target cell; and determining whether to initiate the handover for the UE. Lin teaches taking action based on said determination, said action comprising at least one of: adjusting a scheduling of a downlink transmission to the UE; adjusting a scheduling of an uplink transmission from the UE; adjusting a timing advance for the UE to the source cell and/or the target cell; and determining whether to initiate the handover for the UE (Lin: [0106]-[0109], introduction of interruption of downlink receiving to address the issue of uplink Tx switching during handover). It would have been obvious to a person having an ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to modify the system of You by taking action based on said determination, said action comprising at least one of: adjusting a scheduling of a downlink transmission to the UE; adjusting a scheduling of an uplink transmission from the UE; adjusting a timing advance for the UE to the source cell and/or the target cell; and determining whether to initiate the handover for the UE as disclosed by Lin to provide a system for dual active protocol stack handover (Lin: Abstract). Regarding claim 54, You in view of Lin teaches a network node for operation in a wireless network, the network node (You: Fig. 14) comprising: radio circuitry configured to communicate with a user equipment, UE; and processing circuitry operatively connected to the radio circuitry and configured to cause the network node to carry out a method according to claim 45 (See rejection of claim 45). Regarding claim 35, You in view of Lin teaches wherein said determining comprises determining whether a receive-to-transmit switching limitation of the UE can be met, for a given downlink interval and immediately succeeding uplink interval, and wherein taking one or more mitigation actions comprises one of: stopping early a downlink reception from the later of any scheduled receptions in the downlink interval from either or both of the source and target cells (Lin: [0106]-[0109], introduction of interruption of downlink receiving to address the issue of uplink Tx switching during handover/stopping downlink reception); skipping the later of any scheduled receptions in the downlink interval from either or both of the source and target cells; starting late the earliest of any scheduled transmission in the uplink interval to either or both of the source and target cells; and skipping the earliest of any scheduled transmission to either or both of the source and target cells in the uplink interval. Regarding claim 41, You in view of Lin teaches wherein taking one or more mitigation actions comprises sending, to the wireless network, an indication of whether a receive-to-transmit or transmit-to- receive switching limitation of the UE can be met during a dual-active protocol stack handover for the UE from the source cell to the target cell (You: [0238], [0242], UE indicates DAPS capabilities). Regarding claim 42, You in view of Lin teaches wherein said determining whether there is a constraint on receive-to-transmit switching or transmit-to-receive switching by the UE takes into account an enhanced switching-time capability of the UE (You: [0238], [0242], UE capabilities taken into consideration). Regarding claim 43, You in view of Lin teaches wherein taking the one or more mitigation actions is further responsive to evaluating priorities of one or more scheduled uplink transmissions by the UE and/or one or more scheduled downlink transmissions to the UE (You: [0378]-[0382], method based om UL/DL priority rule). Regarding claim 46, You in view of Lin teaches wherein the method comprises receiving, from the UE, an indication of whether a receive-to-transmit or transmit-to-receive switching limitation of the UE can be met during a dual-active protocol stack handover for the UE from the source cell to the target cell, wherein said determining is based on said indication (You: [0238], [0242], UE indicates DAPS capabilities). Conclusion Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to KODZOVI ACOLATSE whose telephone number is (571)270-1999. The examiner can normally be reached Monday to Friday 10 am to 6pm. Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Avellino Joseph can be reached at (571) 272-3905. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300. Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000. /KODZOVI ACOLATSE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2478
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Prosecution Timeline

Jul 06, 2023
Application Filed
Nov 20, 2025
Non-Final Rejection — §103
Mar 03, 2026
Response Filed

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Prosecution Projections

1-2
Expected OA Rounds
83%
Grant Probability
94%
With Interview (+11.2%)
2y 8m
Median Time to Grant
Low
PTA Risk
Based on 911 resolved cases by this examiner